|
“Devotion leads to trust.” |
Hironobu Rio Maeda
Manager of Asian Business Development
As Manager of Asian Business Development in Globespan’s Palo Alto office, Rio helps portfolio companies to expand their businesses into Asia. He brings a powerful combination of technology expertise, venture capital experience, and a global perspective to help the firm’s entrepreneurs succeed.
Prior to joining Globespan, Rio worked at Sumitomo Corporation for seven years, where he launched a disruptive web service called G-Plan, the first point exchange service in Japan. He also worked at Cross Beam Networks, a subsidiary of Sumitomo, which was the leading distributor of Terayon cable modems in Japan at the time. His most recent role at Sumitomo was in its venture capital arm, PresidioSTX in Santa Clara, California.
Observing how Apple Macintosh unleashed creators’ imagination and how cell phones changed the way we communicate, Rio decided that he wanted to be a part of evolving people’s lives – to work with technology that “not just facilitates a lifestyle,” but fundamentally improves the way we live.
Rio’s passion for building something new and better was clear early on. While in college, he decided to visit Rio de Janeiro, where he had lived during high school, to help create educational facilities in the depressed areas of the city. His efforts were acknowledged by the Kanagawa prefecture, which funded him to complete this program.
His commitment to the entrepreneurs he works with today at Globespan is equally evident. Viewing entrepreneurs as “part of our family,” Hironobu explains the passion behind his work: “I wouldn’t hesitate to devote my time and work for a family member.” With passion, devotion and responsibility as his guiding principles, he views the best part of his job as “working with great entrepreneurs with passion and dreams in their path.”
Rio’s education took him around the globe, giving him an invaluable perspective. He attended high school in Brazil and Singapore and graduated from Keio University in Japan. Currently living in Sunnyvale, California, Rio loves to play golf and is approaching a single handicap. He also enjoys kite boarding, mountain biking, snow boarding, skiing and tennis. Rio's newest ambition is to add surfing as a hobby. |
